The suspension of the 2CV is legendary. Let's explain the specific characteristics in comparison to "normal" cars.
The most eye-caching fact is that the springs of the suspension are mounted horizontally. Additionally, the spring of the front and rear axis are placed in one housing.
(1) Spring pot
(2) Spring
(3) Rubber
(4) Tie rod
(5) Rocker
(6) Fastening spring tube
More information abaout Car Suspension, please visit http://mechanic-info.blogspot.com/2011/12/car-suspension.html
Those spring pot is clamped between two pieces of rubber, by what the movement of the front and rear spring is coupled. While the front wheel is lifted, those movement is brought to the front spring by the rocker arm and the front tie rod.
The force acting on the front spring compresses the front rubber, which causes a movement of the whole spring pot to the front, hence the rear spring gets compressed, too. So the rear wheel is pushed downward by the movement of the rear tie rod and rocker arm. Because of this coupling of front and read spring, the rear half of the chassis is lifted when ever the front wheel ist lifted and vice versa. Those kind of coupling doesn't exist at normal cars.
Mounting the shock absorbers horizontally, doesn't originate in a special behaviour of those devices. It's simply because the attachments of the spring tube are used to fix those devices, too.
The front rubber is compressed and the whole spring tube is pulled to the front.
from http://www.entmontage.de/technik01_e.htm
